Day 8 – Morning Departure, Cruise to 10:30 am, 3.5 hours for customs, 3 pm Excursion

This was our first full day on our Pandaw Mekong River cruise from Phnom Penh, Cambodia, to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The four-night Southbound river cruise was the finale to our almost 2 week Southeast Asia tour. We were fortunate enough to be assigned one of the larger forward-facing cabins (cabin 301). It has a great view not just to the side of the ship but also over the forward section, with some lounge chairs under a covered veranda.

We woke up at 6 am, which was fortunate as the noisy anchor under our cabin was hauled up 30 minutes later and would have certainly woken us up

had we been sleeping still. It was a leisurely morning, and we wandered into the dining room near the end of the 7 to 9 am breakfast time slot. There were many selections in the buffet section of the dining room to enjoy, and I also ordered some whole wheat french toast and fresh fruit from the small menu of a-la-carte options.

The ship anchored at 10:30 am as the Mekong River entered Vietnam. The ship’s staff collected our visas and passports when we boarded and took care of all the logistics of entering Vietnam without us having to go anywhere or do anything. It did take some time, however, as we did not pull up the anchor for 3.5 hours.

We continued down the Mekong River for a short while before anchoring. We got onto a smaller Sampan boat with our group and were transported to a small floating community called Tan Chau. Here many fish farms and homes were floating on the water. It was incredible to see how people lived on the water. They fished from the Mekong River and lived right where they fished. We motored down a smaller canal and saw motorcycles and scooters get onto a small ferry. They were transported only 200 meters to the other side and then offloaded as the ferry was still pulling up on the other side.

We disembarked on a rickety old raised wharf on stilts that led us into a small village. Here we visited a Taoist Temple, which reminded me of the glitz and glamour of Las Vegas. There were brightly colored statues, neon lights, and food offerings. A few people from our group were instructed on how to shake a tube of sticks so that one would fall out. Each stick had a number on it which would correspond to a specific fortune. They then rolled some dice-like blocks, and if one was up and the other down, the fortune was correct. They were given a piece of paper with the fortune and the number on the stick. Of course, those that received a fortune were encouraged to give a tip to the person that was handing out the fortunes.

We got back onto our boat as it rained to go to the other side of the canal. Several Xi Loi motorcycles towing an open cart with bench seats on both sides were waiting for us. We jumped into the back with umbrellas and raincoats in hand and zipped down small streets and Vietnamese villages until we arrived at a farm. We toured the farm producing all sorts of things, such as rice, cilantro, lemongrass, bittermelon, sweet onions, morning glory, and long beans. Off in the distance, I could see someone tilling the swampy soil of their rice farm. It was interesting to see, right in the middle of some of these farms, burial gazebo’s where their ancestors were laid to rest. It was a wet but fun excursion.

We returned to our boat that made one last stop at a stinky fish farm. Apparently, under the floating platform we visited were about 100 thousand catfish. They fed some of the fish while we were there so we could see them splashing around in the water, but it was rather disgusting, with dog feces and a few dogs hanging out to guard the floating farm.

Everyone was fairly wet by the time we returned to our riverboat. If not wet from the rain, wet from sweating under the plastic ponchos that were provided to those that wanted them. It was great to return to our room and freshen up before the 6 pm happy hour and 7 pm dinner. To end our evening, we watched the movie, “Quiet American,” which was based on the story of a reporter when America was in the Vietnam War.